Stalls handler in injury-treatment row loses job

A veteran stalls handler who felt treated "like a piece of meat" when taken to hospital by taxi instead of an ambulance after being trampled on by a horse at Newmarket earlier this year has lost his job with RaceTech.

William McKeon, 58, suffered five broken ribs, whiplash and badly bruised shoulders at the start of the Town Plate, a race for amateur riders that is the traditional curtain-raiser to the July meeting.

McKeon, who worked as a stalls handler for more than two decades, did his final shift at Ascot on Friday as his contract with RaceTech was not renewed – a result, he believes, of him airing his grievances to the media.